Dinesh Kamath talks about his ancestral property at Karnatak

When my grandfather's father had come to Mumbai to settle down here he had left behind ancestral property in Karnatak. Today four families have a claim to that property as per the will made by my great grandfather and his brothers. The four families are my dad and his family, my dad's brother and his family, My dad's cousin aunt (daughter of my great granfather's brother) and her family and my dad's cousin uncle (son of my great grandfather's another brother) and his family. The Will clearly states as to how this ancestral property is divided among four families I have mentioned above. Yet that ancestral property is under dispute today.

First I'll tell you where this ancestral property is located. It is at a place called Mulki which is near Mangalore (Karnatak). The exact place where this property is located is Chiranjipet. A part of this particular property is a small hotel (or Bhansali) which belongs to my dad as per the will. Just this hotel, if it was sold, could have fetched my dad a few lakhs rupees had he sold it when I was born and this would have made him a very rich man (since those few lakhs those day was worth atleast a couple of crore or more today). But the thing is one local person took possession of this hotel at that time and till now he is occupying it. He has no intention to quit that place and he has the support of local goons and also, I guess, the local government. The matter was taken to the court but yet the dispute was not settled.

When I was born my dad needed the money badly and he had the intention of selling off the ancestral property. He had the right to do that. But the property came under dispute and even today it is under dispute.

In 1982, when my dad suffered a heart attack he was admitted to Nanavati Hospital where he was asked to do open heart surgery which could have cured him and kept him alive till today. But he didn't have the money required for that major operation and that time it was our wish that the ancestral property be sold and we get the money that could have helped my dad to undergo the major operation and save his life. But the property continued to remain under dispute and my dad lost his life.

Well, that's all I know about my ancestral property. I am telling you all this because someone the other day happened to ask me whether I didn't own any property at my native place like all the other people do.